mailvu : The connected classroom

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Hello readers!

Connected classroom?

Sounds familiar?

Well, connected classroom is an approach of linking activities in the cl

assroom with outside world where students might be asked to do extended or addition homework for their teachers. For this reason, I am going to tell you about how you can do this by using MailVU. MailVU is a video email that can be viewed by others. Students are able to record themselves speaking about a topic. All they need is a video camera, portable microphone or built in mic in the laptop and internet connection. Using MailVu is easy as A,B,C. Just click,record and send. Video recordings can be up to 10 minutes.

HERE IS THE LINK TO THE WEBSITE: http://mailvu.com/index.htm

How to use it in the language classroom:

Using a 'connected classroom' approach, teachers can encourage speaking outside the classroom by using this activity. For example, students can talk about their favourite football team. They can do it alone, or maybe in groups or pairs where students can make it as an interview or group discussion. Teachers may give introduce the topics in the classroom and students will go home and do it on their own using MailVU. This will directly encourage autonomous learning.

Later, students send their recording via email to teachers where it is now the teachers' responsibilities to listen to the recordings and provide some feedbacks. Another way to do this is, by asking students to do some discussion in groups. Given a topic for example " studying in local universities is better than studying in foreign universities", students can be asked to give their rationale and justification to the topic and send it to other groups. Of course, other groups need to respond to the video

Other interesting ideas that might interest you:

• Students talk about their family members.
• Students do a timeline and talk about each year that they wrote.
• Students may talk about their favourite local food.
• Students may talk about their first memory entering high school.
• Students may talk about the place they would like to visit outside their country.

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT MAILVU:

• It's easy to use. You don't need to sign up. Can use it instantly.
• It has a free version.
• It's good to practise speaking outside classrooms. The principle of connected classroom makes the tool as the perfect tool for classroom lesson.
• The file can be shared via email. You can stay connected with your friends with more interactive way of sending audio mail.

WHAT I DON'T LIKE ABOUT MAILVU:

• Too bad it can't be embedded into blogs.
• Teachers need to consider the external factors in the classrooms such as background noise if they were to do their recordings in the classroom, as it might affect the quality of the sound.

Here is what Russell has to say about connected classroom! enjoy!

podcast with AudioBoo

Hello,

Do you remember the first time when you first record yourself by using tape-recorder? I did that when I was young. But today, with the vast advancement of technology, internet, phones, and Mp3 have replaced the old-style recording system. Today, my topic would be on recording. This is Audioboo, an application or tool for recording and sharing your voice. The free version allows you to create audio up to 3 minutes and if you wish to have a longer recording whixh is up to 30 minutes, you need to upgrade the version to Audioboo Plus for £ 60 per year.

Audioboo is suitable for personal use as well as for business and academic purposes. It is simply fantastic and worth it since the website is easy to use. If you have an Iphone, Androids or Nokia device, you can directly record yourself and share it via Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook or send it straight away to your email. The audio or podcast can also be heard on iTunes where all you need to do is to create your own account.

By clicking start recording, you are ready to record yourself.

After creating your account, you can sign in and join audioBoo community!

Share your recording on iTunes, Facebook, Twitter, or even Blogger!

Pictures are courtesy of Audioboo.fm

You can follow this link to explore more!

http://audioboo.fm/

How is it useful for teaching and language learning?

Personally, audioBoo is useful when teachers want to share their ideas and lesson via podcast. Since it is very accessible, students can listen to it no matter where they are whether they are at home, school or any other places in the world. Besides, teachers can give it as part of homework where teachers assign students to listening activities and ask them to jot down some important points from the listening they have listened to. Moreover, the technology does not limited for teachers only, students can also be introduced to the technology. They can be asked to make a mini speaking test within classroom situation and later the podcast can will be played and others can give their feedback to students. The topic can be anything such as sports, hobbies and the language focus could be specific. Teachers might want them to use present tense or past tense while recording themselves.

The things I love about audioBoo:

• Free version which you can record yourself up to 3 minutes. Sufficient enough.
• Useful for speaking and listening activity.
• Very motivating for students as they can use it in many ways for example, an interview.
• It can be downloaded to an iPhone, Androids and Nokia devices.
• It can be shared via Blogger, Facebook, and Twitter.
• The website is very easy to use. Good for people who are not really good with technology.

The things I don't like about audioBoo:

• It needs internet connection if you are using on your computer.

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p/s: it's good for connected classroom activity.

my brainy brainshark

Hello my readers!

Reading week has come to an end but that does not stop me from sharing with one of the website which caught my attention few days ago. This website is called the Brainshark. Brainshark is a tool that enables users to turn their PowerPoint presentation slides into an interactive voice-enriched video presentation.

You can upload not only PowerPoints, but also documents, videos, photos and add audio by phone, microphone or MP3. In terms of audio, you can add voice recording, share and talk about it via voice narration. This is indeed a very user-friendly tool which enables anyone to create, track and SHARE their presentations’ links via Blogger (for example) or any other sharing tools.

Check it out!

Here is the link to the websitre:

http://www.brainshark.com/

:: Is it useful for teaching and learning?

My answer would be an absolute YES. I believe in technologies and how it can change someone's way of life. We are now teaching a 21st century students, so sometimes a new approach is needed to keep up with students' level and knowledge of ICT. In addition, it is sometimes a good way to put traditional methods on hold first and give a new approach a chance to make its way in an education system.

The Brainshark website injects a fresh way of presenting ideas. It is not only for teachers to share their ideas and to make network with other ELT educators, but also for students to do PowerPoint presentation on their own whether at home or in classroom. Students can always record their own voice and re-record them until they have come up with a finalised product. They can present it to the whole class and let the teacher and students to become their audience. Then, there should be FEEDBACK session where teachers may want to correct their student's language or maybe comment on the topics that the students have chosen. This, in a way is very good for language development.

What I love about this website?

• FREE
• Easy to use.
• Accessible. Anyone can view the slides as long as it is made public.
• Fun to use it.

What I dislike about this website?

• Time consuming if it is part of classroom activity.
• Might not be suitable for people without internet connection.
• It's limited to Mp3 audio ONLY. should have variety like for MP4 as well.

Sweet Macaron with a taste of Bubblr!

A better version is available at: http://www.pimpampum.net/bubblr/?id=32902

Hello everyone, now that I have my reading week, I have more time to update my blogs. Today, I would like to introduce you to one of the websites that is amazing and easy to use. I remember the first time I tried it in Russell's ICT class, I instantly falling in love with this website. For a person who love photography and English, the mixture of both give a fresh injection to teaching and learning in English. So now, let's dive into Bubblr.

What is Bubblr?

Bubblr is a website for people to create comic-strips by using a photostream, taken direct from Flickr and then make a sequence of pictures where you can add dialogue boxes ( as in bubble shapes). Later, all pictures are saved in the archive. Besides, there are variety of pictures to choose from where you can just key in any words in a tag field (e.g macaron, cakes) and enter 'search'. Students can start from there to build a story using the images that appear based on their selection.

By using Pimpampum Bubblr, a teacher can have his/her students to work and their own before presenting it to the whole class. The key idea to this is to have students to speak in front of the class by presenting their picture stories to others. In addition, students can choose any topic that they like for examples footballs, foods, and animals. This may create personalisation to students as they are able to express their creativity freely.

Here are some of the snapshots taken from:

http://www.pimpampum.net/bubblr/

The advantages:

1. The most important thing for teachers and students is the website is free. It is accessible for all and can be made as part as classroom activity or as a homework for students.
2. Promotes creativity among students. Bubblr has many varieties of pictures to choose from. This will create personalisation among students. It is very important to let students do topics that they love so that students may engage with the activities better.
3. An opportunity to develop communicative skills. Teachers can use it for presentation and have students to present their chosen topics.
4. There is no need to be worried about taking pictures from Flickr because it is a photostream that works as a platform to share pictures legally.
5. The bubble boxes help students to describe their pictures. This may at least give some language input in the teaching and learning session.

The limitations:

1. The aim of the lesson may be diverted as some students might search for inappropriate pictures.
2. It may attract more attention to people with visual learning style. However, it depends a lot on how the teacher is going to carry out the lesson. Therefore, engaging multiple learning styles in one lesson will be more useful for students.
3. It is time consuming. It is better to give it as a homework.
4. Again, it might be problematic for students who do not have any access to the internet.

To sum up, as I said earlier, the website is worth to use. It is a fun way to teach your students about English and technologies. Sometimes we need to try new things and not to rely too much on Power point presentation. I hope you have found something interesting here that can be used to deliver your teaching. It is a hard work for teachers to teach students nowadays since their lives involve so much with technologies. Therefore, we need to be able to make use of the tools available online so that we can keep up with 21st century's students.

Till then, cheers!